Comments #9801559:

@stevep59 Nope. Was definitely still going strong in the '80s and '90s when I was growing up.

Every summer, the news would be full of stories about California going up in flames. I finally asked Dad why we only hear about California and sometimes Texas but not anywhere else, like where we live.

Dad said it was basically two things. First, that California is a lot drier and so fires are easier to start. Second, people aren't allowed to protect their homes against fire. There was even a news bit around that time that said a neighborhood was prevented from building a fire break because they'd disturb *gophers.*

It's the sort of micro-focused stupidity that seriously turned me off of conservation for years. So many of these groups, certainly the ones that are loud enough to affect public policy, cry and scream for actions that are counter-productive to the end goal.

By the way, if you want to get involved in conservation, I highly recommend you find a local group of hunters. These are people who have a personal stake in not just preserving, but maintaining wild spaces and animal populations. Even trophy hunting, those photos of people posing next to a lion or some other large, exotic animal they killed, helps conservation when done legally. The fees help fund parks and security for the locals against damage to their crops and livestock. The animals themselves are specifically tagged as problem animals. A rhino that's gone mad and killed half a dozen other rhinos, for instance, or a lion that's been kicked out of his pride and has started making trouble for a local village. *Much* better than letting things get out of control and having a bunch of angry villagers shoot anything that gets close.